


In This Kingdom By the Sea

by never_love_a_wild_thing



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Historical, Angst, Grief/Mourning, Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe, M/M, mentioned Homophobia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-26
Updated: 2018-09-26
Packaged: 2019-07-17 18:53:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16101692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/never_love_a_wild_thing/pseuds/never_love_a_wild_thing
Summary: Inspired by Annabel Lee by Edgar Allen Poe





	In This Kingdom By the Sea

**Author's Note:**

> This is a mess and I'm speed posting again so editing will come later. I don't write MCDs so I have no idea why I wrote this. I blame Lady Midnight.

Theo couldn’t force the food down his own throat, but his parents didn’t seem to notice. He thought were probably are purposefully ignoring him at this point. It was fine, he decided, slipping his plate to the floor for the dog to clear before excusing himself to deaf ears and hurrying out of the house. A storm was brewing on the horizon, dark clouds rolling in over a grey sky as the wind ripped at his clothes. The bleak cottage behind him creaked and groaned in protest, but Theo’s eyes were fixed on the dark lighthouse on the other side of the bay.

With a split second’s decision, he grabbed the nearly rusted-out bicycle leaning against the side of the cottage and swung himself onto it, feet pressing desperately at the pedals as he tore into motion, the thin wheels of the machine unsteady on the rocky path that led around the edge of the bay, black waves crashing against the seawall beneath him with a ferocity that Theo could only wish his heart could feel.

He wasn’t afraid, cycling along the precarious path over stormy waters. There wasn’t much that he was afraid of anymore. His heart pounded in his chest as he drew nearer to the lighthouse, making Theo want to rip it out of his own chest and find someplace more useful for it.

Theo tossed his bicycle aside at the gate to the stairs leading up to the still dark lighthouse. He vaulted over the gate and felt his steps slow as he approached the door. Liam’s father wouldn’t be here, he reminded himself. Not if the light wasn’t on.

He pushed the door open, finding the ground floor just as empty as he had expected. He barely spared a glance around before starting up the winding staircase towards the light. There was no fire signaling to the ships below, but a dark figure stood, leaning familiarly against the railing, outlined by the strange light of the storm that pushed in over the water.

“Liam?” he gasped.

“Theo,” Liam’s head turned towards him, voice quiet.

“I thought – “Theo started, stopping himself as Liam reached out, instead taking his hand and allowing himself to be pulled into his embrace.

“I missed you,” Liam whispered. It was something that he said every time they had a second alone together. Whether it had been a week, a day, or an hour – even if they had spent the day together in the company of others, unable to do much more than make eye contact – Liam would say it.

This time, more than any other, Theo felt it in his soul. “Liam,” he said, choking on a sob.

“I know,” Liam said, hushing him and holding him close, “It’s okay.”

“How is it okay?” Theo asked, trying to catch his breath, “How can it ever be okay? We can never be together now.”

“We’ll be together in the end,” Liam assured him, brushing away the tears. Theo stared at his face, washed pale in the dull colors of the overcast sky.

He wanted to ask how. How Liam was always so sure of himself. He thought back to all of the times that they had snuck away to the orchard down the street, sitting under a tree, eating apples and daydreaming about running away together.

“We can go to Australia,” Liam would say, “The colony’s full of criminals, they probably wouldn’t care.”

“Yeah, about murdering us,” Theo would reply scathingly. Too harsh, he thought.

“We could go to South America, then. Or Africa. We could become adventurers. Or pirates!” He missed the gleam of excitement and possibility in Liam’s eyes now.

“What am I supposed to do?” Theo asked now, sinking to the floor, still wrapped in Liam’s arms.

“Make it better,” Liam’s face was half hidden in shadows now, almost like he was fading away. His fingers continued to caress Theo’s cheeks, wiping away each fresh tear as Theo clung to the rough cotton of his shirt.

“How? I can’t – not without you,” he sniffed.

“Tell Mr. Poe,” Liam said softly, “And then go away with Dr. Geyer. You don’t need to stay here.”

Theo looked at him in despair, trying to take in as much of Liam as his eyes could see, trying to figure out how he could possibly tell Liam – he couldn’t go. Not when Liam could never leave.

“I can’t,” Theo tried, choking on tears again.

Liam took his face in both hands. “You can. They’re afraid, Theo. Of our love. Of what it means.” His fingers ghosted over the place where a lock of hair was stowed away in a small locket around his neck. As golden and bright as Liam’s had been on bright summer days, when his smile had seemed to light up the entire world. “You can’t stay here.”

“But you will,” Theo argued.

Liam kissed him on the lips, so light that it felt like air. “I don’t have a choice. We’ll be together again, Theo. My darling. _My darling_.”

Theo broke down completely, choking on tears as they poured out faster than he could wipe them away. When he could finally lift his head again, Liam had vanished. With a painful hollowness, Theo realized that he had never been there in the first place. It had been the last storm, almost a week ago that had rolled in, chilling Liam to the core in a way that no doctor could cure. His beautiful Liam, with the bright smile and the shining hair. Theo hadn’t been allowed to see him, but he had snuck in on the last day, held Liam’s hand and mopped his brow, whispering sweet nothings until Liam had drifted off to sleep, never to wake again, Theo collapsing over his body, so wracked with sobs that he couldn’t even find it in him to argue or save himself as his love for Liam in the completely socially unacceptable way was made known to the rest of the world.

The door creaked open downstairs and Theo sprung into action, scampering down the stairs, hiding in a tiny nook that he had found years ago as Liam’s father passed, slow steps trudging up the stairs passed him. He held his breath and then made his way silently down the stairs and out of the lighthouse as soon as he was in the clear. His bicycle still lay by the gate. Before, he would have to hide it in the bushes or down by the seawall, but these days, Liam’s father never seemed to notice it. Theo wasn’t the only one mourning his Liam, he knew.

He rode his bike back inland a little further, circling back to one of the lower cliffs, where stood a new structure, small and in white stone. The eternal home of his own life – his own Liam – this sepulcher by the same violent waves that had pulled him away from Theo.

He collapsed once more, legs feeling too weak to hold him up much longer. But instead of crying, he set about his work, producing two sheets of paper and a pencil from his pocket and beginning to write. It took him hours, and by the time he had finished his note to Mr. Poe, the moon was high in the sky. Theo stretched himself out in front of the tomb, lying next to Liam to sleep for the first time in his life and the last time until his death.

In the morning, a dark, familiar hand shook him awake. “Theo,” the voice said gently, “If you want to be my apprentice, we must go now. The train leaves for California in an hour.”

Theo nodded, sparing one last look for his darling Liam, and then following Dr. Geyer away.

“Wait,” he said as they entered town, “I have to give this to Mr. Poe.”

The way to California was long, but by the time that they reached the town of Beacon Hills, where Dr. Geyer’s friend Dr. Deaton ran his practice, the poem had been published under the title _Annabel Lee_. Theo worked hard during the day, learning to heal people, to save lives, and at night, he slept with the poem under his pillow and the locket of Liam’s hair clutched in his hand. It didn’t stop the dreams of Liam’s clear blue eyes or the terrible storms of angels in the skies and demons in the sea, watching with hungry eyes the stark white structure by the sea.

It was almost twenty years later that a young man, skin tanned, American accent perfected, carried a box to the cliff on the sea. Nobody was there to watch. Theo Raeken was a name that had not been spoken in the area for years. The man broke into the sepulcher, tucking the box in next to the coffin before spending the rest of the night rebuilding the tomb to make it look like it had never been touched.

He placed a hand against the resealed door in the early hours of the morning in a silent goodbye to his friend, heartbroken by sickness and early death that had taken Theo away from Scott McCall, Dr. Geyer, Dr. Deaton, and the rest of his friends back in Beacon Hills.

As he walked away, the clouds begun to clear, an acknowledgement of the wrong done to the two young boys, who loved with a love that was more than love, resting finally side by side in their sepulcher by the sea. In this kingdom by the sea. In their tomb by the sounding sea.


End file.
